A necktie of the four-in-hand type usually, but not necessarily, flares or gradually widens from the central neckband portion toward the extremities, with one end usually being wider than the other. When looped or draped about the neckband of the garment of the wearer, the wide end is tied in a slip knot about the narrow end, with the two ends depending and overlapping vertically in front.
For correct sartorial appearance, a four-in-hand necktie should be tied neatly. By neatly it is meant that, when tied, not only is the knot neat, but also the overlying end is not shorter than the other end and, at the most, is not much longer than the other or underlying end. Nothing so evidences sartorial disarray and general untidiness than an unneatly tied four-in-hand necktie having either end, especially the underlying end, hanging down much below the other end.
The tying of a four-in-hand necktie neatly requires experience and skill. Desirably, both ends of a tied four-in-hand necktie are of the same length, but this requires much skill. Even so, a neatly tied necktie frequently is attained only after several trial and error attempts. If the underlying end is too long, the knot must be untied, adjustments made, and the knot retied. If the underlying end is too short, the knot need only to be loosened, adjustments made, and the knot retightened. All this, however, leads to wastage of time, unnecessary expenditure of energy, annoyance and even exasperation with wear and tear on the nerves, let alone on the necktie.
The problem of neatly tying a four-in-hand necktie on the first try has been recognized and proposals made to solve it. Exemplary of such proposals are the disclosures of the following patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 2,499,260, Rhein, Feb. 28, 1950 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 2,994,886, Sharp, Aug. 8, 1961 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,025,528, Minter, Mar. 20, 1962 PA1 U.S. Pat. No. 3,271,780, DeJean, Sept. 13, 1966 PA1 France No. 967,537, Billioque, Mar. 29, 1950
None of the foregoing patent disclosures, however, really solve the problem efficiently, or as efficiently and simply and with as little expense and as much ease of manipulation and convenience for the user as the invention for which this patent application is made. Of the above-listed patents, the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 2,499,260 purportedly offers an optimum solution by providing spaced physically detectable indicators on the underside of a tie to be arranged equidistant from the front opening of a neckband, when tie is draped thereon, the theoretically assure that the tie is tied neatly. Aside from necessitating more than one indicator, however, the disclosure of this patent does not make it clear exactly where the indicators are to be located on the necktie, i.e. the longitudinal location. The other U.S. patents would seem to offer solutions less desirable than that proposed by U.S. Pat. No. 2,499,260.
The solutions proposed by above-listed French patent also purport to be of an optimum nature. The solutions proposed, however, in the main require the provision of a series of indicators on either the underlying or the overlying end of the necktie, with the necktie adjusted on the neck of the wearer preliminary to tying the knot so that one indicator, depending on neck size, is adjacent an overlapping portion of the other end to assure even ends when the necktie is tied. Again, however, a plurality of such indicators is needed.